


The Doctor and Rose Tyler Drabbles

by Queen of the Castle (queen_of_the_castle_77)



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Drabble Collection, Drama, F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-24
Updated: 2011-08-24
Packaged: 2017-10-23 00:52:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/244446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_of_the_castle_77/pseuds/Queen%20of%20the%20Castle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A number of unconnected Doctor/Rose drabble written for dw100 on LJ.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nine and Rose Romance and Gen Drabbles

Title: Changing Customs  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Nine/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 143: Foreign Customs. Set during mid-Season 1.

“Um, Doctor?” Rose muttered quietly so the dangerous-looking group gathered around them wouldn’t hear. “Is it just me, or does this seem like a wedding ceremony?”

The Doctor snorted. “Of course not, Rose. It’s a greeting custom of this planet. Give it time, you’ll get used to the cultural differences.”

The panther-like creature in front of them clasped the Doctor’s hand in Rose’s, and the group bared their teeth expectantly.

“Kiss now!” the creature hissed.

“Ah. The customs seem to have changed.”

Rose rolled her eyes and pulled him into a kiss. Best to keep the crowd happy, after all.

 

 

Title: Alien  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 3: Alien. Set during ‘Rose’.

The Doctor and his ship were alien. If she hadn’t seen it herself, she wouldn’t have quite believed it. Oh, he didn’t seem exactly like any other normal bloke, what with blowing up her job and the living plastic. Still, his hand, though cold, had felt human in hers.

She’d been looking for an escape without even realising. An unexpected alien seemed just about perfect to her.

Still, as she ran towards the big blue box, away from Mickey and her life, she nonetheless found herself hoping that he wasn’t all that different to humans in the ways that mattered.

 

 

Title: Beautiful  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Nine  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 19: Dressed / Undressed. Set during ‘The Unquiet Dead’.

The wardrobe room has no lock. The privacy of her room is too far away, though, if she finds she needs to add to her costume. So she shucks her clothing right where she stands beside the clothing racks, knowing the Doctor could find her naked at any moment.

Wouldn’t that be interesting.

She’s a little put out when it doesn’t happen. Just a little.

But the Doctor makes up for it, albeit in his ‘I’m an alien and I can’t admit these things properly’ way, when he takes one look at her, now dressed, and tells her she’s beautiful.

 

 

Title: Routines Without Domesticity  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 64: Tea. Set during Season 1.

It was one of the few routines in a life as far from domestic as he could manage.

“My Mum always did this,” Rose had said the first time she’d set the kettle to boil. “One last cuppa at the end of the day.”

The Doctor hated to think about sharing anything beyond an affection for Rose with Jackie Tyler. But he’d heard the tone of sad longing in Rose’s voice. For her, he managed this one mutual custom.

Every (relative) night, they drank tea together in the kitchen. Rose smiled softly each and every time. It was worth it.

 

 

Title: The Press of a Button  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 74: Exterminate. Set during ‘Dalek’.

He’s killed her. The Doctor has killed Rose Tyler with just the press of a button. He stupidly thought, after they somehow survived through that missile in Downing Street with barely a scratch on either of them, that they could get through anything together.

Maybe that’s the problem. They hadn’t been together this time. He let her go off alone, and so he wasn’t there to save her. Worse, he’s the one who condemned her.

As if it wasn’t permanently scarred into his mind already, the harsh cry of ‘Exterminate!’ will haunt his dreams for an entirely new reason now.

 

 

Title: The Precarious Tightrope of Reality  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Nine, Mickey, Jack  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 84: Charade. Set during ‘Boomtown’.

Rose flirts back at Jack, but she never initiates it herself.

Rose agrees to go to a hotel with Mickey, but being with him feels like purposely falling into a safety net when she should be at least trying to walk the precarious tightrope.

She’s almost glad for the alien interruption, because both she and Mickey know it’s a charade. She loves him, but it’s over.

She and the Doctor are the ones dancing now. Around each other rather than together, granted, but that’s just for show. Rose knows what she wants.

She just wishes they could drop the act.

 

 

Title: Experienced Rider  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Nine  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 88: Spook. Set during Season 1.

“Woah!”

Rose’s horse suddenly reared. The Doctor was at her side in a flash, one hand steadying her and the other running over the horse’s neck, calming it.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I must’ve done something.”

“No, something’s spooked it.”

A minute later she was on his horse instead, with him sitting behind her. His arms rested on either side of her body, holding the reigns. “There you are. Experienced rider, me. No worries of a horse knocking you off now.”

Rose knew he actually wanted her close in case of trouble, but said nothing, simply leaning back into him.

 

 

Title: Going Against the Grain  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 103: Gracious / Ungrateful. Set during ‘Father’s Day’.

She had no concept of just how much he’d put himself on the line in that moment when she’d asked if they could try again. He’d known it was a terrible idea. It went against everything he’d ever believed to risk a paradox just for her peace of mind. But it was what she’d wanted, so he’d agreed. Of course he’d agreed. How could he say no to her?

Now Rose was acting like she had every right to throw that in his face. For a moment, he wondered if she had more in common with Adam than he’d realised.

 

 

Title: Inexplicably Drawn to You  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 105: Last Call. Set during ‘Rose’.

He doesn’t normally actually invite people onto the TARDIS. He certainly never expected to invite someone _now_ , with the Time War still hanging over his head like a raging storm.

But she’s fantastic, and he can’t help but want to have her along.

She says no.

One invitation should have been more than enough. It apparently isn’t. He refuses to beg. So he leaves her behind.

He can’t help but go back for her.

She gets this one last offer and that’s it. If she says no, he’ll never see her again.

She doesn’t. She says yes.

His hearts pound.

 

 

Title: Conflicting Desires  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 107: Wrestling. Set during Season 1.

What was the use of a Time Lord who couldn’t even master himself?

The Doctor wondered that as his double heartbeat sped at the sight of Rose bending over to grab something from a storage box underneath the console.

Part of him wanted to protect that still-far-too-young girl from all of the things in the universe that might hurt her. Another part of him seemed very much to want to become the exact sort of thing from which he wanted to protect her.

Rassilon, but he wanted her. Wrestling with himself over that fact was sure to drive him mad.

 

 

Title: So Alien  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Nine, Jabe  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 108: Plant. Set during ‘The End of the World’.

She’s a tree who talks. Who _flirts_ , even. And the Doctor flirts right along with her.

Right, Rose thinks. Clearly there’s a lot to get used to, travelling through time and space.

The Doctor goes off with his tree friend. Rose makes a joke about it, because she can’t quite admit that she doesn’t want him to go. It’s not that she really minds that he’s apparently found someone. It’s just... all of the people around her are so obviously alien, and he's less so. He grounds her.

Rose takes a deep breath and prepares to stand on her own.

 

 

Title: Too Easily Swayed  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 110: Fool. Set during ‘Father’s Day’.

He almost didn’t blame her at all for the stupidity of changing time. It was her father, and she was right there and already immeasurably upset. Of course she wanted to save him. And of course she didn’t understand the consequences. Not even he’d immediately realised how much that one mistake could cost.

It was himself he blamed. He knew it was a bad idea to take her there in the first place, and an even worse idea to try _again_. It made them vulnerable, but he hadn’t cared. Because she’d asked. And he could never say no to her.

 

 

Title: Looking For An End  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Nine  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 159: Useless. Set during ‘Rose’.

“You were useless,” she says. Even though she obviously means it as a joke, he knows it’s true. He’d be dead right now, but for her.

He’s not entirely certain whether to thank her for preventing that.

He realises then that he’s been more reckless than ever since the War. He’s been completely useless at getting out of trouble once he’s found it, looking for an end without realising it.

This bright young girl seems like she’d keep him in touch with the universe.

He asks. She says no.

He knows that he needs her, though. So he asks again.

 

 

Title: Poetry  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Nine  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 161: Poetry. Set during Season 1.

“Can’t we go to an uprisin’? Or maybe catch the nearest guerrilla war?”

“Harriet Jones was right. You’re a violent little human, aren’t you?”

“Come on. I wanna save some lives, or go hurtlin' through space in some tin can that’s barely worth the name ‘ship’. Not just sit around listenin' to melodramatic rhymes.”

The Doctor scoffed. “Oh, Rose, you shouldn’t have said that. Now I have to show you just how wrong you are.”

“An alien invasion,” she begged. “Any invasion, you pick. Please.”

The Doctor wouldn’t yield.

Rose sighed, knowing she was beaten. “Right. Poetry it is, then.”

 

 

Title: Holding Her Ground  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Nine  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 173: Ordnance. Set during ‘Dalek’.

Rose’s first thought in the momentary panic of having a massive weapon pointed at her is that the Doctor never carries a gun, so that _can’t_ be the Doctor. The second thought is that she needs to get out of the line of fire _now_.

But then Rose sees the wild look. It’s the same one that’s been hidden behind his eyes since she met him. Her brain unfreezes, and Rose realises that this is the Doctor as he was at the end of the Time War.

She can’t let him go back to that. So she holds her ground.

 

 

Title: Comfort Food  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Nine  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 177: Chips. Set during ‘The End of the World’.

Chips have always been comfort food for Rose. She still hasn’t quite managed to work the weight off from the time after the Jimmy Stone debacle. She’d needed a hell of a lot of comfort.

The Doctor, she thinks, already understands this about her. She asks for chips instead of addressing whether she wants to leave, and somehow he knows that she just needs that bit of reassurance, of home. She savours a vinegar-smothered chip in her mouth. He grins as he watches her, and it’s infectious.

She pokes her tongue at him, and knows that things will be okay.

 

 

Title: Magic in the Universe  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Nine  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 190: Nebula / Nebulous. Set in Season 1.

“So there’s such things as mind-readin’, teleports, spaceships, and _super-intelligent sponges_ , of all things. But you’re tellin’ me that with all that in the universe, magic doesn’t exist _anywhere_? In all of time and space?”

“A lot of things get _called_ magic, but that’s just primitive species trying to describe the fantastic. There’s always another explanation.”

Rose shook her head. “I don’t believe that. That’s just you bringin’ it back to science.”

“Everything _is_ down to science, Rose.”

Rose took his hand in hers, and looked out at the beauty of the nebula the TARDIS had landed near. “Not everythin’.”

 

 

Title: The One Worthwhile Thing  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 198: Dog Days. Set during ‘The Parting of the Ways’.

He has to blabber on about Barcelona and dogs. Otherwise he’ll have to face the fact that he’s dying, and that he’ll never see Rose again. Not with these eyes, anyway.

She smiles when he jokes about dog’s noses. He needs to see her wonderful smile. He needs to hold on to that memory when he goes. Because if there was one thing he did in this incarnation that was worthwhile, it was going back and asking her a second time. That smile alone would have made it worthwhile. But there’s so much more than that.

He misses her already.

 

 

Title: Boyfriends  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose/Mickey  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 209: Domestic. Set during Season 1.

“Oh, come on,” Rose said. “We’ve gotta go refuel in Cardiff anyways. I’m just asking you to tell me what time you’re aiming for so I can let Mickey know. Is that so hard?”

Of course it is, the Doctor thinks. He’s not keen on having her boyfriends anywhere near him or his ship.

He tells himself that it’s because he doesn’t want her making his TARDIS all domestic. How many times does he have to remind her that he just doesn’t _do_ that?

He refuses to consider that maybe he really doesn’t want to admit she _has_ a boyfriend.

 

 

Title: The Angel on His Shoulder  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Nine.  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 222: Oust. Set just post-‘The Long Game’.

“Was that a good idea?” Rose asked.

“What?” the Doctor snapped, his temper still short.

“Leaving Adam there like that.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “He must have been _very_ pretty for you to _still_ want him on board.”

“No,” Rose denied. “I’m glad you threw him out. It’s just... that head thing. What if someone finds out? It’s not exactly as if it’s not noticeable. Imagine if 21st century humans got their hands on that.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “All right, we’ll check on him. Honestly, you’re such hard work.”

Rose just grinned, her tongue sticking out teasingly.

 

 

Title: All That Was Left  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 238: Expunge. Set during ‘Bad Wolf’.

She was right there only moments ago, the Doctor reflected with strange detachment. She’d been running towards him, so close to the safety of his arms, and then she _wasn’t_.

She’d been completely obliterated. He might have found it easier to quantify if there’d been a body, but she’d been so thoroughly expunged from the universe that all that was left was the dust he was running his fingers through.

The Doctor yanked his hand away as if he’d been burned. That couldn’t be the last memory he had of touching Rose. The thought horrified him.

She was really gone.

 

 

Title: Invisible Spaceships and ‘Our Song’  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Nine, Rose, Jack  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 245: Flummox. Set during ‘The Doctor Dances’.

He doesn’t need Rose to _say_ that she doesn’t see the Doctor as a man. Invisible spaceships and ‘our song’ make it clear enough. Then she completely confuses him by instantly changing her mind the minute he insinuates that maybe he’s more of a man than she realises.

She’s got the attention of her handsome ‘Captain’, who seems to be about everything Rose looks for in a bloke. Rose could have Jack at a moment’s notice. So the Doctor really can’t figure out why she’s suddenly looking at _him_ that way instead.

Humans. He doesn’t think he’ll ever understand them.

 

 

Title: Taking the Blame  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 44: Sick. Set during Season 1.

Rose moans piteously as he gently sets her down so he can unlock the TARDIS doors.

“Hold on,” he says softly.

When he lifts her again, she thrashes weakly against him. Not even her loose fist whacking his already too-large nose makes his grip falter. He’s done enough to hurt her.

It’s his fault for not remembering the 8709 Indo-Chinese plague. Even the locals, with superior immune systems, were ravaged by it. Of course Rose would be affected.

If the TARDIS couldn’t cure her in time, he’d never forgive himself.

“Just hold on,” he repeats, and this time he’s begging.

 

 

Title: Things She Can Never Do  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Nine, Jackie  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 47: Missing. Set during ‘Aliens of London’.

She’s been ‘missing’ for 12 months, and her Mum’s been frantic. Not so frantic that she didn’t make up some story about au pairing in France to appease Rose’s relatives, mind, but she still feared Rose was dead.

“I can’t do that to her again,” Rose tells the Doctor.

But Rose already knows that there’s no chance she can stay. She’s seen too much, and there’s so much more out there. How could she forget that?

And it would mean leaving him. She’s only been with him a few days, but Rose already knows she never wants to do that.

 

 

Title: The Beginning of Something Fantastic  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 48: Beginning. Set during ‘Rose’.

When he steers a young blonde woman out of danger, he has no idea that he’s begun something fantastic. He quickly notices that she has potential, but so do millions of other people on this planet and this time alone.

He meets her again and thinks that if he’d been the sort of man who went out of his way to ask people to travel with him, he might consider her.

When she saves his life and _really_ impresses him, he does ask her along. _Twice_. And that’s when he knows that he’s started something very different with this girl.

 

 

Title: Keeping Him on His Toes  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 288: Sterling. Set during Season 1.

She argued with him constantly, refusing to take his word for anything or let things lie, no matter how many walls he put up around himself. She was outrageously prone to getting into trouble, so that she managed to nearly get herself or both of them killed in most of the places they visited. She let pretty boys hang around, and cared a bit too much, and generally annoyed the life out of him half of the time.

He never wanted her to leave.

Rose Tyler was an exceptional companion. If nothing else, she kept the Doctor on his toes.

 

 

Title: Bigger Than You  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 300: Ichor. Set during Season 1.

“Ow. _Ow_!” Rose cried out. “Stop touching it!”

The Doctor sniped, “Well, it wouldn’t hurt if you’d told me you were injured, would it? Yep, that’s definitely infected. There’s puss and discharge and –”

“Ugh!” Rose interrupted. “Gross. I get the point. Sorry for not tellin’ you, but you had bigger things to deal with.”

“Bigger things than you?” the Doctor asked. “Never. You get hurt, you _tell_ me.”

“All right,” Rose grumbled. “I’ve learned my lesson, swear. Now, can you fix it?”

The Doctor helped Rose back to the TARDIS, muttering under his breath about apes the whole way.

 

 

Title: Hiding Away  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 301: Cool.

It takes the Doctor months to figure out where Rose goes when she’s not watching him pulverise the TARDIS console in an effort to fix things. He just knows it’s not to the privacy of her room, as he’d expected.

It’s only when he accidentally stumbles (literally) over her huddled under what seems like half of the Wardrobe Room’s contents that he realises she’s been hiding away from the cold, not from him.

It’s been far too long since he’s had to worry about the niceties of having a human onboard the TARDIS. Perhaps it’s time to make some changes.

 

Title: Right Here, Right Now  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 341: Hearts. Set during ‘Dalek’.

She’s not dead. Rassilon, _she’s not dead_.

His brain ceases all other activity. He doesn’t care that the Dalek is still aiming a weapon at Rose, or that if he lets the Dalek out it will eventually kill millions of people, likely including her. That’s a distant concern. This is what matters now.

There’s a chance that he can actually save her. After thinking her dead, that prospect is enough to make him feel like his hearts can finally beat again.

The Dalek is right. There’s not much point in feeling anything at all if he doesn’t at least try.

 

Title: The Smallest Piece in the Mosaic  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose/Nine  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 349: Incendiary. Set sometime mid to late Season 1.

Rather than some sudden flash of insight caused by him saving her life or making some grand confession, it’s the tiniest thing that makes Rose Tyler aware of her feelings; the last piece in a whole that she couldn’t properly see until it was completed.

She catches him looking at her across the TARDIS console. “Where d’you want to go next?” he asks.

It’s so simple. He’s so much older, smarter and more powerful than her, and he’s the one driving the TARDIS, but he still doesn’t hesitate to let her call the shots.

How could she not love him?

 

Title: Seeing Through Hearing  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 315: Betrayal. Set during ‘The Parting of the Ways’.

He does it this way, with the impenetrable TARDIS door between them, because he can’t stand to see the inevitable look of betrayal on her face. It doesn’t matter, though. He can hear it colouring her voice well enough to imagine every little detail of her expression anyway.

He almost stops the TARDIS from leaving. He can’t stand to send her away and lose her. However, the idea of her _staying_ and losing her that way scares him even more; he’d have to watch her die. It’s just as well he won’t survive it either way.

He lets her go.

 

Title: Unrequited and Unspoken  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose, Adam  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 325: Feckless. Set during ‘Dalek’.

The Dalek’s made him realise something that he’s been denying, but it’s not something he’ll be quick to admit to her. It’s too important.

She somehow convinces him to bring that feckless pretty boy on board his ship, even though he left her behind so he could save himself. That’s when the Doctor knows that, whatever he might feel, it obviously isn’t returned. She’s got a boyfriend back home, and she’s set her sights on another one. She’s got no use for _him_. Not like that, anyway.

So she can’t know. He won’t tell her. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

 

Title: Just a Few Seconds  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 331: Prompt. Set during ‘Rose’.

After leaving her behind, he feels his solitude as keenly as if Gallifrey had just burned moments ago. The guilt and self-punishment that he’s blanketed himself in has, until now, been like a strange sort of comfort. As long as he still has those, he can hide behind them and isolate himself from further pain.

He doesn’t feel separate anymore, though. He doesn’t know why or how, but she got beyond his barriers without even really trying.

For once he’s actually on time. Mere seconds have passed for her. It’s been just long enough to change her mind... He hopes.

 

Title: Knowledge That Burns  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 335: Dropping the Ball. Set during ‘Dalek’.

Rose has thirty whole seconds from when he presses the button to seal the bulkheads. He spends every single one of them willing her to move faster, faster, _faster damn it_!

Not one of those seconds matters compared to the few seconds by which she’s too slow.

If she’d been a little faster... If that Adam kid had helped her instead of just saving himself...

The Doctor can’t blame him, though. Not when it was the Doctor himself who sealed her in.

It’s his fault. He throws the earpiece across the room as if it’s burned him.

He’s killed her.

 

Title: Breathing With Her Lungs  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 338: Harmless

Between the building exploding and the Cabinet Room coming to a standstill, there are twenty seconds in which at any moment Rose could die. The Doctor lives them practically in slow motion, gripping her hand tightly.

He doesn’t care about himself. It’s probably fair for him to die in a fireball, considering what he did to his own planet. But not if he has to take her with him. Not then. That’s not justice. That’s his worst nightmare come to pass.

When it finally ends, she’s entirely unharmed.

She climbs out into the fresh air and he can breathe again.

 

Title: Ghenghis Khan Revisited  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Nine, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 340: Obstreperous. AU: if the events at the start of ‘Human Nature’ had taken place in Series 1 rather than Series 3.

“Wait, what?” Rose asked. “Hide out on _Earth_? Seriously?”

“I’ll be human,” the Doctor assured her. “They won’t be any more attracted to us than any other ape.”

“What about the TARDIS, though?”

“I’ll power her down. Easy.”

“No,” Rose rolled her eyes, “I mean why can’t we park the TARDIS somewhere and hide out in _here_? Or were you just showin’ off with that ‘horde of Ghenghis Khan’ stuff?”

The Doctor made a face. “Ah,” he eventually said.

A few flicked switches and the TARDIS jolted to a holt.

“Well, this’ll be a long three months,” Rose mused. “Cards?”

Title: Whatever Works  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Nine/Rose, Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 346: Tack.

No matter how thoroughly he derides the men ( _boys_ really, he corrects himself with a scoff, nothing more) who trail after her like puppies, Rose doesn’t seem inclined to stop being swayed by their attention long enough to see what’s right in front of her.

Just days ago, she and Mickey were headed off hand-in-hand to...

If he thinks too hard about it, it’ll drive him mad.

In the end, he’s forced to take a different approach.

Even though she doesn’t properly remember the press of their lips, he’s still the only pretty boy she ever looks at after that.


	2. Ten/Rose Romance Drabbles

Title: Marriages of Convenience  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 67: Reputation. Set during Season 2.

The Doctor and Rose have been married several times already throughout time and space, usually to free one of them from prison or slavery. This is the first time it’s happened on Earth.

Somehow that makes it seem more real.

They’ve been stuck in early 19th century England for three weeks now, and he’s frankly sick of Rose being treated like a leper because living alone with a man who’s not her husband has damaged her reputation.

They stand side by side and swear forever, and the Doctor tries to convince himself he’s just doing it to make things easier.

 

 

Title: In the Candlelight  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 136: Candle. Set sometime during Season 2.

Rose complains that if she doesn’t get some salad or vegetables soon, she’ll end up with scurvy. Scurvy. On _his_ TARDIS. The Doctor thinks that he should be insulted that she believes he’ll ever allow that to happen.

Regardless, they eat out properly for once, instead of just heading for a chippy.

They sit down at a table for two, and the waiter discretely places a single candle between them. Rose rolls her eyes, remarking that yet again they’ve been mistaken for a couple.

The Doctor watches the play of the firelight across her features and decides he doesn’t mind.

 

 

Title: Not-So-Accidental Snogging Sessions  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose, Ten/Reinette  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 1: Accidents. Set during ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’.

Humans who'd cheated on their significant others often claimed afterwards that it was an accident. Accidents, the Doctor always thought, included car wrecks and broken glass, not full-on snogging sessions.

Now the Doctor found himself wondering whether he could use that line on Rose. Reinette had sort of launched herself at him, and he’d had no choice but to catch her. However, he hadn’t had to return her kiss, caressing her around the waist. Nor did he have to let her turn his head.

He’d kissed another woman, and it wasn’t an accident, but how could he tell Rose that?

 

 

Title: Breakable  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 5: Love. Set during ‘Journey’s End’.

They never seem to realise that having two hearts means that he’s twice as breakable.

His companions never understand that just because he doesn’t want to fully uncover his hearts by fully expressing his feelings, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t put those hearts on the line each and every time. He’s loved them all, in different ways.

He asks Rose whether it needs saying, knowing that she believes it does. It’s tragic that she doesn’t know that those words are as close as he’s ever been to saying 'I love you' aloud to a companion and truly meaning it.

 

 

Title: Out of Character  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 12: Out of Character. Set during ‘New Earth’.

He tries to be casual about the fact that Rose has just snogged the life out of him (he’s surprised he didn’t regenerate again). He tries to pretend, even to himself, that it means nothing to him.

But after the last time they kissed, it can’t mean nothing. It means everything.

Until, of course, he’s told it wasn’t even her.

He tries not to admit that it hurts that apparently Rose kissing him was a sign that she was acting out of character. But it does. Because it means that she probably won’t do it again. And that _kills_ him.

 

Title: Interesting Fixations  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: Adult  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 18: Favourite. Set during Season 2.

It’s really difficult to compare this new Doctor to the one Rose first met. She tries not to think of it as him being ‘better’ or ‘worse’ in certain respects, but rather just different. There is, however, one thing that she can’t help but think is better.   
His tongue finds just the right spot and Rose nearly bucks him off in response. She’s barely in control of her own body when he’s doing _that_ to her, but she’s hardly complaining. She whimpers, wanting more, and he happily complies.

His new oral fixation is her favourite part of this regeneration thing.

 

 

Title: A Lifetime of Exploration  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: Adult  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 26: Worry. Set during Season 2.

Rose raked her nails down the Doctor’s back and he groaned, a guttural sound.

He’d never get tired of this. All of time and space at his fingertips, and he’d rather spend his whole existence exploring _this_.

That was why he worried, no matter how often she said ‘forever’, that one day she would leave him, one way or another. How could he live through the loss of this closeness?

So he clung to her now, and touched her just the way she liked most, and gave her reasons to hold on to him for as long as she could.

 

 

Title: Fading Before His Eyes  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose, Donna  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 51: Mirage. Set during ‘The Stolen Earth’.

Donna’s intimated that she can see the woman down the street. The Doctor’s even been sort of expecting her since the overabundance of Bad Wolf references. Still, it’d seemed like false hope. This, right now, finally seeing Rose, feels like a mirage. An oasis in the desert, with the Doctor being a man dying of thirst.

He runs faster than he ever has in his life, knowing he needs to touch Rose to accept she’s real. However, like a mirage fading on closer inspection, he’s denied that. He’s cut down, and the moment is lost.

Damn the Daleks to hell.

 

 

Title: Never Quite the Fantasy  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 57: Dream. Set during ‘Doomsday’.

“Rose,” he’d breathed into her ear.

“He’s calling me,” she’d told her small family later. If she told them the rest, they’d think it was just a fantasy. They’d never up and leave in the middle of the night chasing the Doctor’s voice if they thought it was just a sex dream.

She remembered the way he’d touched her in her dream just as clearly as she’d remembered the frantic look on his face as she’d fallen towards the void. It had felt real.

She’d find him again, now. Maybe then she could compare that dream to the real thing.

 

 

Title: Unconventional Hiding Techniques  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 134: Hunting. An AU set during Season 2.

They’re being tracked, and Rose’s loud breathing is going to give them away. He can’t tell her to hush, because speaking out loud would defeat the purpose. It’s too dark for him even to just gesture for quiet.

He thinks about placing his hand over her mouth. Then he thinks about how loudly she’ll protest.

Instead, he presses his lips to hers and cups the back of her head gently in his palm. She returns his kiss hesitantly, shocked.

When they pull away from each other, she’s much too surprised to breathe at all until the creature is long gone.

 

 

Title: Panorama  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 141: Opulence. Set during ‘Army of Ghosts’.

He’s brought her halfway across the universe to find the most beautiful sunset imaginable, blending colours providing a backdrop to stingray-like creatures drifting above the foreign landscape. He tries not to see it as seeking out the perfect moment to remember her, because that would suggest that he might lose her.

Storms approaching or no, he refuses to consider that possibility.

He asks her a question he’d never have contemplated broaching if he hadn’t already known the answer. And when she says, “Forever,” with the stretching panorama around them reflecting the brilliance of that moment, he can almost believe it.

 

 

Title: Hearts Beating Faster  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 160: Twitterpated. Set during Season 2.

His hearts beat faster every time their hands touch. It’s such a human sort of reaction, but it’s too much effort to consciously control it. It doesn’t matter, because she mirrors it. He can feel the increase in her pulse through his wrist pressed against hers. Neither of them mentions it.

It’s more difficult to tell if he makes her stomach drop, or whether her head swims a little when they get close enough that she can feel his breath against her skin. He might be alone there. Still, she does always return his stupid grins. He thinks that’s enough.

 

 

Title: At the Verge of Crossing Boundaries  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 171: Terminus. Set during Season 2.

The hugs the Doctor shares with Rose often last a long time. This one, however, seems to somehow sort of _linger_.

Their relationship has been in a sort of stalemate for so long that he knows exactly where the boundary is. And this, right here, is at the verge of crossing it. He knows he shouldn’t do that. Once he steps over that line, there’s no going back, and no staying still. They’ll follow the track to its inevitable conclusion. He just doesn’t _do_ that with companions.

He has to pull away from her now.

And yet he clings on.

 

 

Title: Fishes Wearing Clown Shoes  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 210: Susurration. Set during Season 2.

Rose was one of the most fascinating humans the Doctor had ever met, particularly when she slept. He’d tired of being separated from her for hours every night, so he’d started staying with her. He’d been rewarded by hearing numerous odd phrases murmured under her breath as she dreamed.

“Why’s the jelly in the beard?”

“Undo the pterodactyl.”

“Footprints on his underwear.”

“Fishes wearing clown shoes.”

He found it completely charming, and wished he could see those dreams more closely.

When she woke up and asked him why he was smiling, he just kissed her forehead and kept on grinning.

 

 

Title: Testing Her Limits  
Rating: Adult  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 211: Acme. Set during Season 2.

There was something remarkable, the Doctor thought, about the way the human body was constantly straining for more.

Rose would draw his fingertips gently to her temple and suddenly he’d be right there, feeling what she felt, knowing what would make everything coalesce for her and using his free hand and his mouth and other body parts to bring that about. Then just when he thought she’d reached her peak, he’d see with sudden clarity what could send her even higher.

Afterwards she’d lie gasping, exhausted. But he knew that Rose enjoyed testing her limits as much as he did.

 

 

Title: The World Through Red-and-Blue-Tinted Glasses  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 215: Red / Blue. Set during ‘Doomsday’.

They’re so simple, these cheap human 3D glasses. Red and blue plastic, surrounded by flimsy white cardboard. Yet they provide the solution for a seemingly hopeless situation. Unfortunately, they also tell him quite clearly that he’s about to lose yet another person who has become essential to his existence.

He has to choose whether to send Rose away, or selfishly keep her with him and take the chance that the void stuff revealed by the red and blue plastic will suck her into hell. And he loves her, though he’s never said it, so the choice is really already made.

 

 

Title: Treading Unfamiliar Paths  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 221: Entwine. Set sometime during Season 2.

Fingers creep around each other almost tentatively, even though they’ve tread this same path many times before. It feels unfamiliar this time. It isn’t so they can keep a grip while they flee for their lives from aliens, or even just swing their arms cheerfully between them.

Their fingers don’t just interlace casually, but entwine. The back of her hand is pressed against the pillow by his as he covers her, while his other hand traces over the curve of her hip.

The Doctor asks permission one last time with his eyes. Rose just tells him aloud to hurry up.

 

 

Title: A New TARDIS Rule  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 235: Lace. Set during Season 2.

“Uhhh,” the Doctor said eloquently.

“I’ll take it from that shining compliment that you like them,” Rose said.

He might be able to actually confirm that if his mouth wasn’t drier than the surface of the planet Kosperus.

“If I take them off, are you more or less likely to be able to speak?” Rose asked.

The Doctor pried the small scraps of black lacy material carefully off her body. For once, he thought speech was overrated.

The Doctor decided that it was a new TARDIS rule that Rose Tyler was never allowed to wear anything other than lace underwear.

 

 

Title: Other Ideas  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 236: Greetings. Set during ‘The Stolen Earth’.

He hadn’t been able to finish his sentence the last time he saw her. He certainly hadn’t had the chance to kiss her goodbye, as he might have liked, the way his last incarnation had been able to do. Well, really he would have liked to have never been separated from her in the first place, but since when did he ever get things just the way he wanted?

This right now was a case in point. Because he’d fully intended to kiss her hello. Really he had. It was just too damn bad that the Daleks had other ideas.

 

 

Title: Signs of Onset  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Rose/Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 269: Pollen. Set during Season 2.

“Now, Rose,” the Doctor entreated, holding a hand out to ward her off.

Contact was getting harder to avoid by the second. If the Doctor could just get out of the console room, he might be able to lock a door between them until this wore off.

Except right then her hand suddenly rested on his arm, spreading spores onto his skin. So much for his reflexes.

He felt his eyes dilating and his mouth going dry. Classic signs of onset.

He really hoped Rose would accept ‘alien sex pollen’ as an excuse after he’d bent her over the console.

 

 

Title: Proper Use  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten/Rose, the Master  
Warning/s: Bondage  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 275: Bind. Set after an AU Season 3 in the universe used in my fic [Emotionally Impeded Displays of Admiration](http://community.livejournal.com/then_theres_us/200859.html).

The Doctor never imagined a time when he wouldn’t be deathly mortified at the mere _idea_ (let alone the reality) of the Master witnessing him handcuffed naked to a bed.

“So she finally put those things to proper use, did she?” the Master smirked, leaning against the doorframe.

The taunting didn’t bother him. Nor could he bring himself to care that he’d have to rebuild practically the whole TARDIS after leaving the Master unsupervised for over two (magnificent) hours.

The Doctor just hoped Rose would get back before the endorphins faded. She was way better at kicking the Master out.

 

 

Title: Everyone But Her  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 276: Admission. Set during ‘The Satan Pit’.

As the Doctor admits how much he believes in Rose, he muses that everyone and everything through all of time and space seems to know precisely how he feels about her. Except, perhaps, Rose herself. These moments when he expresses it so clearly never seem to happen when she’s nearby.

Reinette knew it wasn’t just the stars he was missing. Mickey knew he’d always be second-best. The crew of the Sanctuary Base immediately labelled them a couple. Even this nameless, speechless beast is well aware.

If he lives through this, he swears he’ll tell her.

He knows it's a lie.

 

 

Title: Everything is Doubled  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 283: Capacity. Set during Season 2.

“Two hearts. Everything is doubled,” Rose said softly, tracing her fingertips across the Doctor’s chest from right to left and back again.

“What?” the Doctor asked.

“I sorta thought that maybe you could never love some stupid little human like me,” Rose said.

“You’re not stupid,” the Doctor chastised.

Rose smiled. “That’s my point. You _would_ say that. You don’t just love one stupid human; you love us all. Your hearts have a greater capacity for it, I think.”

The Doctor caught Rose’s wandering hand in his.

“And they’re doubly breakable,” she added.

The Doctor squeezed her hand in agreement.

 

 

Title: Never Settling Down  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose/Ten, Jackie  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 284: Settle. Set during ‘Army of Ghosts’.

Her Mum asks whether Rose is ever going to settle down. Rose barely hesitates to answer.

She can’t imagine the Doctor in a house filled with several small children, with a big lolloping dog tethered in the backyard. The fantasy (is it a fantasy or a nightmare for her?) doesn’t quite make it beyond the look of disgust and terror that he’d clearly displayed when they’d had to talk about mortgages on Krop Tor.

She doesn’t even know if she herself wants to settle down, but she never will regardless. She loves him too much to do that to him.

 

 

Title: Marks and Claims  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 302: Mine. Set during Season 2.

He claims her with caressing hands and sharp teeth, leaving a mixture of aching marks and fading gratification in his wake.

The strange pleasure/pain juxtaposition perfectly represents his feelings for her, though it’s obvious that she doesn’t even realise that there’s anything but happiness to be had here. He tries to show her the darkness and ultimate futility inherent in his need for her. But, in the end, it’s not something she can really understand. She’s only human.

He claims Rose now because one day she’ll no longer be his. All he can do is cling on while he can.

 

 

Title: Knowledge of Cataclysms  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 304: Fourth Doctor Titles, using ‘The Seeds of Doom’. Set between ‘Fear Her’ and ‘Army of Ghosts’.

The Doctor had been getting the feeling for a while now that something terrible was coming. As a Time Lord, he never ignored premonitions of that kind. Not when they were his own foresight, at least. He knew how knowledge of cataclysms could echo back through time.

It all converged on Rose.

The Doctor might not want to think about it, or admit it, but he’d been seeing the signs for a while now. The Beast in the Pit had only been the most outright expression of it. His time with Rose was ending.

He held onto her even tighter.

 

Title: Test Drive  
Rating: R  
Warnings: Sex  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 342: Teeth

These teeth are untested. He’s found himself incapable of saying ‘fantastic’ anymore, but otherwise their capabilities are a mystery.

Not for long, though.

Rose throws her head back and arches up into him, groaning. He marks her skin, nibbling a nipple teasingly before applying an almost painful pressure. Her fingers tug frantically at his new hair, forcing his mouth lower.

He remembers the feel of Rose’s skin quivering underneath his mouth every time he sees the bruised outlines of his teeth on her. He plans to hang onto these teeth as long as possible so those memories never entirely fade.

 

Title: The Smell of Sex in the Air  
Rating: R  
Warning: Sex  
Character/s: Ten/Rose   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 345: Secretion

For all that he likes the scent of her perfume, or that herbal concoction she washes her hair with, it’s that human smell of sweat slickening her skin that he _loves_. Is it any wonder that he takes every opportunity to give her a workout?

She gasps for breath, her heart racing, as he pushes her onwards.

He withdraws, not to give her a breather, but to pull her legs over his shoulders and make his way down her sweat-soaked body.

This, he thinks when he finds his target, is a nice smell too. He buries his nose in it.

 

Title: Have You Ever  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose/Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 326: Multi-legged. Set not long after ‘The Christmas Invasion’.

“Have you ever _actually_ had two heads?” Rose asks.

The Doctor laughs. “Depends who you ask.”

“What about extra legs? No eyes? Only, I dunno, this whole regeneration thing is so...”

“Alien?”

“Yeah.”

“There have been some... _interesting_ changes, but none of those.”

Rose leans conspiratorially towards him. “Ever been a woman?” she jokes.

The Doctor stares straight-faced at her for so long that Rose exclaims, “No way!”

He cracks a smile. “Not yet,” he agrees.

Rose thinks she might be able to adjust to even a change as extreme as that eventually. Nothing could stop her from loving him.

 

Title: Thoroughly Overwhelmed  
Rating: PG-13  
Warnings: Issues of consent, sort of. May of may not be enough to trigger.  
Character/s: Ten/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 336: Transfer. Set sometime during Series 2.

She sat on the edge of the bed, resolutely facing away from him.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s my fault, really,” Rose admitted quietly. “Thought I could handle it.”

The Doctor sighed. She could practically hear him messing up his hair in frustration. “Rose...”

She shivered, remembering his similar tone when she’d first asked to share his thoughts during sex the way his people did. He’d been hesitant, but she hadn’t listened. It was her own fault she’d had her mind so overwhelmed that she couldn’t even _think_ ‘stop’, let alone beg him aloud to do so.

She tried not to cry.


	3. Ten and Rose Gen Drabbles

Title: Making the Effort  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose, Jackie  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 2: Food. Set during ‘The Christmas Invasion’.

If the Doctor didn’t know better, he’d think that Jackie Tyler was trying to win him over by appealing to his stomach. This was the second time she’d invited him for dinner. But considering that he’d delivered her daughter home twelve months too late and kept nearly getting Rose killed, he couldn’t quite figure out why _she_ was the one making the peace offerings.

He saw Rose’s luminous smile across the table as she watched the Doctor and Jackie sharing a lame Christmas joke (who’d have thought), and he realised that Jackie’s efforts might not be about him at all.

 

 

Title: Momentary Weakness  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose, Jackie, Mickey  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 9: Regeneration. Set during ‘The Christmas Invasion’, with references to ‘Castrovalva’.

He remembers a time when companions lugged him across an alien planet in a capsule while he recovered from regeneration. This time he’s being pulled up a seemingly endless flight of stairs in the Powell Estate. He’s aware of it in a peripheral sense, despite being mostly asleep.

He’s dead weight to them right now, and he’s aware of that too. Just some strange man who took over Rose’s Doctor’s body and changed it beyond her recognition. She wants _her_ Doctor back.

He might be physically unable right now, but he _will_ prove himself to her again. He has to.

 

 

Title: Low-Species Humour  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 10: Jokes. Set during Season 2.

When he tells Rose an assortment of (admittedly not perfectly translated) Gallifreyen jokes and she laughs raucously at each, he’s initially fairly pleased.

“Those’ve got to be the worst jokes _ever_ ,” Rose chokes out, tears flowing down her cheeks from laughing so hard.

In his last body he might have called her a stupid ape for not understanding them. In this body he asks her to tell _him_ some jokes instead.

He finds her contributions genuinely funny, actually. Sometimes, he realises, it doesn’t hurt to lower himself to a human standard instead of expecting them to try to meet his.

 

 

Title: Seeking Out a Cure  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 17: Insect. Set during Season 2.

The Doctor _told_ Rose not to go outside. Why does she always ignore the ‘don’t wander off’ rule?

Now she’s comatose from what would have been just a simple insect bite had she not been human. It’s up to the Doctor to go outside, through a swarm, to retrieve the cure and save her life.

Of course, Time Lords are deathly allergic to this particular species of insect as well.

Oh well. He’s died for her once. What's one more time?

He loves this new hair, and he would love to keep it, but he loves her much, much more.

 

 

Title: Weird Stopovers  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose, Firefly Crew  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 20: Crossover. Crossover with Firefly. Set during Season 2.

“A spaceship!” the Doctor exclaimed. “About 500 years in your future. Although, this isn’t the best example. Not in particularly good nick, is it?”

“What’re you doin’ on my gorram ship?”

“I hate guns,” the Doctor grumbled as half a dozen were trained on them.

“Run?” Rose suggested.

“Talk first,” the Doctor said. “This lot look trigger-happy. And really, I’m very interested to find out why that girl over there is mumbling my name over and over when I haven’t given it yet.”

His curiosity would be the death of them, Rose thought. She settled in for another weird stopover.

 

 

Title: Dead To Him  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 31: Lost. Set during ‘Doomsday’.

She’s not dead, but to him the distinction is only technical. Her loss hit him just as hard as her death would have, even though she’s probably off living a truly fantastic life. And it’s just as irrevocable as a death. He’ll never see her or speak to her again, so what’s the difference?

When he finds a gap, he thinks for a moment that she’s not so lost anymore. But it’s just one chance to say goodbye, and then he loses her all over again.

The ache in his hearts is suddenly fresh, and he allows himself to cry.

 

 

Title: A Betting Man  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 32: Challenge. Somewhat AU, set during Season 2.

The Doctor never backed down from a challenge, even when he should.

“When I said that even you couldn’t make her drop her knickers, I didn’t mean you should go disprove that whole ‘Virgin Queen’ thing,” Rose said, resting her hands on her hips.

“Yeah, less being critical and more cutting me down, eh?”

“She really wasn’t joking when she said she’d hang you by your toes.”

“And it hurts!” the Doctor complained. “Catch me trying to prove myself like that again.”

Rose grinned, knowing he’d do it again in a second. He was just that sort of man now.

 

 

Title: Blowing Off Course  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 40: Emerson. Set during Season 2.

‘Welcome to Emerson, Iowa. Population 439’.

“That alien signal really led us here?” Rose asks sceptically. “There’s probably more people livin’ on my Estate than in this whole town. I’m expectin’ tumbleweeds to blow past at any moment.”

“Small town, late 20th century. Perfect hiding place,” the Doctor assures. He’s not keen to admit that his driving might have been off again.

Rose narrows her eyes, “If there’s not some seedy alien underbelly here, you owe me a shopping trip.”

The Doctor resolves to arrange aliens himself if it’ll get him out of lugging Rose’s shopping bags around all day.

 

 

Title: A Beginning and an End in One  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose, Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 49: The End. Set during ‘Journey’s End’.

He was closing the gaps between universes, which alone should have been enough to keep them apart. But, as he’d found multiple times, the walls between them never quite seemed to stay closed. He probably could have gone back for her eventually if that was all that was keeping them apart.

No, the reason this was really the conclusion for him and Rose was that she had someone now. The Doctor could come back for her one day, maybe, but she wouldn’t agree to come with him.

It was really the end, even if it was just beginning for her.

 

 

Title: Tattoo  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 59: Tattoo. Set during Season 2.

“You do not have a tattoo,” the Doctor snorted. “Rose Tyler, with pink hoodies and panda slippers, getting a tattoo?”

“It’s true!” Rose insisted. “Shareen and I had a few too many and we went off and got it done. There should be breathalysers at those tattoo parlours to stop that, I reckon.”

“Then they’d never make money erasing the bad ones. How bad’s yours?”

“Shareen picked a rose for me. How original.”

“And where is it?” the Doctor asked.

“Tellin’ you that,” Rose said coyly, “would require me to be even drunker than when I got the damn thing.”

 

 

Title: A Word Too Often Used  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 66: Inconceivable. AU post-Season 2. While the Challenge makes _me_ think of ‘The Princess Bride’ the book (love it to death), I daresay it’s more likely Rose has only seen the movie.

Rose Tyler had watched a movie once where a man kept saying the word ‘inconceivable’ over and over, without seeming to know how to use the word correctly. The Doctor, who frequently uses ‘impossible’ to describe things that have already just happened right in front of him (which just proves they _are_ possible) sometimes reminds her of that man.

So when the Doctor, upon seeing her back in his universe for the first time in years, breathes, “Impossible,” there’s really only one thing that Rose can possibly say in response.

“I don’t think that means what you think it means.”

 

 

Title: Knowledge as Power  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 68: Ghost. Set during ‘Fear Her’.

“I was a Dad once,” the Doctor says, and then immediately pretends it never happened.

Rose should be used to this sort of thing. She knows next to nothing about his past, no matter how many opportunities she gives him to talk. She doesn’t even know the name of his lost planet. So she should be used to it when he shoves that lack of knowledge in her face, the ghosts of his past acting as a very successful barrier erected between them.

She should be used to it, and it shouldn’t hurt when he does it, but it does.

 

 

Title: Noir  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 71: Hardboiled Detective Novel. Set during Season 2.

“She had endless nothingness stretching into her future. She was looking for escape in the worst places. I could tell from the desperate look in her eyes that she needed to be rescued. There I was, a complete stranger, and I was her only chance at really living. But when I took her hand, she shackled my wrist to hers. I’d never be rid of her now. How like a dame.”

“Shut up,” Rose said, laughing. “I was _not_ like that. Anyway, that’s terrible. What was that accent?”

The Doctor glared. “1930s American. And it’s improvised noir. What’d you expect?”

 

 

Title: Jumping Into Bushes  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 72: Hidden. Set during Season 4

Through much practice, Rose Tyler had grown remarkably comfortable with jumping into bushes at a split-second’s notice. It wasn’t a talent she’d ever foreseen coming in handy. Recently, though, it had repeatedly saved her life and protected the fabric of time itself.

She hid in some thick fronds as soon as she caught a glimpse of brown and pinstripes.

She wished she could run up to him instead of hiding. He was _right there_. But Rose knew it wasn’t time yet.

So she huddled behind a plant, waiting for the Dimension Cannon to reactivate, and watched him with longing eyes.

 

 

Title: Handicapped  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 78: Wounded. Set during ‘The Christmas Invasion’.

Time seems to stop for Rose with the slash of a blade.

She looks at this new man and can still hardly believe it’s the Doctor. But that doesn’t stop the thought running through her head now.

The Doctor’s had his hand cut off.

He needs both hands. He can barely get out of trouble with both hands, both feet and a nose long enough to balance on. How’s he going to survive with a handicap like that? It might as well be a mortal wound.

When he grows it back, she’s happier than ever that he’s a crazy alien.

 

 

Title: Necessary Binding of the Senses  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 80: Sweet / Sour. Set during Season 2.

“Bondage, eh?”

He blushes a deep scarlet and pouts.

“You have to wear it or this won’t work.”

Once the blindfold is firmly on, he pushes a small morsel of food into her mouth. It’s an explosion of flavour, brilliantly sweet and sour all at once.

“What is _that_?” she asks, whipping the blindfold off before he can stop her.

She’s never seen anything that looks so disgusting _ever_.

She thinks it over for a moment and places the blindfold back on. “I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see that,” she said, and opens her mouth to wait for another bite.

 

 

Title: If Wishes Were Cobblers, Then Outlaws Would Dance  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 81: Robin Hood. Set during Season 2. As for the title: don’t worry, it’s not just you. It really has little to do with the fic beyond the Robin Hood – Outlaws connection. Just thought I’d mix it up a bit. ;-)

“I am so like Robin Hood! I steal from the rich and help the poor all the time!”

“You steal from the rich to help yourself, and help the poor without using any money,” Rose laughed. “You’re so not Robin Hood.”

“That legend was based on me, I’m telling you.”

“So you have a band of outlaws lyin’ around, then?”

“Not right now, no.”

“Or, I dunno, some fair maiden waitin’ for you to sweep her off her feet?”

“Well, Rose _Marion_ Tyler, you tell me.”

She gapes for a moment and then throws her pillow at him. “You wish!”

 

 

Title: Puffy Adorableness  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 82: Elvis. Set during ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’.

The Doctor has never before liked Elvis Presley as much as he does at this moment. Without even realising it, Elvis has given the Doctor an excuse to see Rose Tyler dressed up in a puffy 1950s outfit, speaking bad period-specific lingo. She’s never seemed as completely adorable to him as she does right this second.

She settles behind him on the scooter, wrapping her arms around him, each hand seeming to instinctively find one of his hearts to rest over. Her front presses comfortably against his back.

The Doctor thinks he just might have discovered his new favourite musician.

 

 

Title: Red Capes and Sugar Handouts  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Ten   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 90: Trick or Treat. Set during Season 2. Also, catch the reference I couldn’t help throwing in. Could I be any more obvious?

“You can’t be serious!” Rose laughed.

“Yeah!” he says, his voice squeaking with excitement. “Halloween, 2006! In Las Vegas, mind, so you can’t go see your Mum.”

“You’re just afraid of her,” she grins.

“Always.”

“But you can’t seriously want to see a 21st century Halloween. Your _life_ is like that, only more realistic.”

“Rose,” the Doctor said seriously. “Any holiday that involves free handouts of sugar is the best holiday ever conceived. Now come on!”

She giggles and lets herself be pulled out the door, the red cape of her hastily-thrown-together Little Red Riding Hood costume billowing behind her.

 

 

Title: Overkill  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 92: Bonfire / Gunpowder. Set during Season 2.

“What, are you signallin’ people fifty light-years away for help?”

“What?”

“The fire,” Rose laughed. “It’s _huge_!”

“It’s a bonfire,” the Doctor said defensively. “It’s supposed to be big.”

“It’s a bit overkill.”

“See the way the light catches those waves as they come in?” he asked.

Rose looked and nodded, seeming entranced for a moment by the rhythm of it. “Yeah. ’S beautiful.”

“Couldn’t see that with some little barbeque flame, could you?” he said triumphantly.

Rose looks at him askance and then grins. “You’re a nutter.”

If she hadn’t said it with such affection, he might be offended.

 

 

Title: Passions Not Shared  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 93: Flowery. Set just prior to ‘Tooth and Claw’. Written because of that comment Martha makes in ‘Gridlock’ about him taking her the same places he took Rose, and being on the rebound. Oh Doctor, you know it’s true.

“You didn’t like it,” the Doctor said, looking downbeat.

“I did! But Shakespeare to me just means schoolwork. I’m sorry. It’s all that Elizabethan language stuff. I just don’t understand it. And it’s so sort of ... _flowery_.”

The Doctor pouted.

“But seein’ it live was nice!” Rose offered. “Nothin’ beats theatre, and that lot were all into it. Great atmosphere.”

Rose knew the Doctor loved Shakespeare and was disappointed she didn’t share that enthusiasm. But back in the TARDIS, he suggested a concert and let her choose.

Rose grinned, warmed by his efforts to find something they could enjoy together.

 

 

Title: Falling in Slow Motion  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 96: Frozen. Set during ‘Doomsday’.

He sees Rose’s lever go offline, and sees her determined look, and everything seems to freeze. Daleks moving at a hundred miles per hour through the air look like they’re suspended in near stillness.

He’s a Time Lord. He can slow time around him, just enough to give him the extra time he needs to perceive things and work out the answers.

But this time there is no answer. He can’t let go of his magnaclamp without falling into the void, and that won’t help her.

All his Time Lord talents do is make him watch her fall excruciatingly slowly.

 

 

Title: Wrapped Around Her Little Finger  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 98: Claws / Clause / Claus. Set during Season 2.

“I hate cats.”

Rose gave the Doctor that pleading look, with just a hint of a smile, that never failed to make him cave. “Oh come on. You know we can’t have a dog on the TARDIS. It’d chew on all the wires and we’d end up floating aimlessly in the Vortex for weeks.”

“I don’t remember saying yes to having _any_ animal on board.”

Rose kept up that little smile that both begged him and said she knew she’d already won.

“There’ll be hair everywhere.”

She smiled.

“It’ll claw up my trousers,” he whined.

She kept smiling.

Damn her.

 

 

Title: The Song and Dance He’s Forced to Lead  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose, Mickey  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 113: The Rain in Spain. Set during ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’.

The Doctor swept into the room, jubilantly (drunkenly, really) singing tunes from _My Fair Lady_. He nearly faltered upon seeing the weapons which were mere inches from dissecting Rose and Mickey. The danger his companions were in hadn’t been obvious from he’d heard while he’d been listening from outside. The visual was much more instructive.

If the fireplace had failed to deliver him back on time, they’d have been turned into parts for the ship. Rose would be _dead_.

That thought made it even harder to jump through the glass. He didn’t want to leave her again.

He had to.

 

 

Title: Being Left Behind  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Reinette, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 121: Ooh Shiny. Set during ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’.

Rose doesn’t blame Madame de Pompadour for falling for the Doctor, or for properly capitalising on his interest in her. It’s something Rose herself has never been able to do, because she isn’t anywhere near as certain how the Doctor feels about her as Reinette seems to be.

And is it any wonder she’s unsure whether her feelings are returned? The Doctor seems prepared to leave her behind just to chase the first new, shiny and interesting person he comes across, like a cat chasing a piece of tinfoil. Where does that leave her?   
Heartbroken. Though she’ll never admit it.

 

 

Title: A Pressing Need to Fly Among the Stars  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 131: Stargazing.

He knows every one, and he loves each of them. Now he might never see them up close again.

Somewhere out there amongst those stars, thousands of years into the future, there’s a young woman who’s probably thinking the exact same thing, and blaming him for it. He deserves it. It’s his fault that he’s stranded them all.

He’s got to find a way back. No matter how appetising the slow path sounds theoretically, he couldn’t stand for the closest he can get to the stars to be gazing out the window.

He couldn’t stand never seeing Rose again, either.

 

 

Title: Pineapples  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 135: Shameless / Shameful. Set during Season 2.

Ever since a bet distracts them slightly from the flesh being ripped from the bones of good men, it’s become a competition. The initial intent was to lighten the mood when they needed it, but now it’s always ongoing.

The latest bet is that she can’t insert the word ‘pineapple’ into every sentence without someone commenting on it. She flirts shamelessly while she does it and is so charming that no one wants to insult her by asking.

He refuses to admit part of his ire at her winning might be down to the fact that she’s made him jealous.

 

 

Title: Tainted Miracles  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 144: Blood. Set during ‘The Stolen Earth’ and ‘Journey’s End’

There’s no blood. Rose has seen Daleks kill loads of times before, but she’s still somehow surprised by that. When she was young, her Mum had told her it wasn’t serious if there was no blood. People shouldn’t die if there isn’t blood.

The Doctor shouldn’t die at all.

Of course, he’ll regenerate. That might even be all right in a few months. But she doesn’t want him to change everything about him before they have a chance to get used to each other again. She wants _this_ him to stay.

She prays for a miracle.

Oddly, she receives one.

 

 

Title: Urban Legends  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 148: Urban Legend. Set during ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’.

The Doctor had always laughed at the stories human parents told their children to keep them in line. No presents from Santa if you’ve been naughty. Your face will freeze like that if the wind changes. The television will suck out your brain if you watch it too long.

That was before the sheet was lifted and he saw the blank where Rose’s face should have been.

Her beautiful face, and those electrical impulses that made up her brilliant, unique mind, gone. Just _gone_. All because of a television signal.

Perhaps those legends had some basis in reality after all.

 

 

Title: Laughing So That She Doesn’t Scream  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 156: Tooth and Claw. Set during ‘Tooth and Claw’.

Rose watches a man be torn to shreds, blood and gore flicking away from his writhing body off the tips of sharp claws. She feels like whatever is left of her innocence is being ripped away as well.

She wants to avert her eyes, but it’s somehow impossible just now.

The Doctor’s arms suddenly grip her firmly. He pulls her out of the corridor. It’s only when the graphic death scene is out of her line of sight that Rose can even blink.

Afterwards they speak jokingly of werewolves, but all she’s doing is laughing so that she doesn’t scream.

 

 

Title: Just One Smile  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 158: Intoxication. Set during ‘The End of Time Part Two’.

Rose is freezing cold. Even though she’s keen to get inside to the relative heat of the flat, she still stops in her tracks at the sound.

A tall, skinny sort of man is leaning heavily against the wall. He’s clearly found the bottom of one bottle too many. Her Mum never quite managed to instil a sense of self-preservation strong enough to make Rose ignore that sort.

She stops to chat, and he wishes her a strange sort of happy New Year. She grins at him before leaving. He looks like she’s made his night with just one smile.

 

 

Title: Worth More  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 187: Investigate. Set during ‘School Reunion’.

The last day Rose spent inside a school, she scattered her shredded notes about the classroom like confetti, telling her biology teacher to go screw himself because she wasn’t coming back.

She intends to saunter inside the school this time in a position of power. She’ll be a health and safety inspector or something, putting them all on the back foot. She doesn’t need A-Levels or her teachers’ approval to make something of herself. She has psychic paper.

Instead, the Doctor sets her up as a dinner lady. Rose says nothing, suddenly unsure whether _he_ thinks she’s worth something more.

 

 

Title: When He Loses Her  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 212: Dudgeon. Set during ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’.

He’d gone somewhat insane with anger when he’d lost Rose. They’d stolen her face and her mind. He couldn’t even begin to process that, and its potential permanence, beyond that initial feeling of absolute rage that anyone would hurt his Rose and then just leave her abandoned in the street.

It was later, with her back, that the Doctor realised that he couldn’t keep pushing her away. He clearly couldn’t afford to properly lose her. That anger should never be unleashed on the universe more long-term.

He tried to forget that one day he’d have no choice in the matter.

 

 

Title: The Differential For Two Hearts  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose, the House team.  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 214: Crossover. Set during Season 2. Crossover with ‘House M.D.’.

“What’s the differential for two hearts?”

“Genetic defect?”

“Oi!” Rose snapped. “He’s not defective.”

“I’m also _right here_ ,” the Doctor said. “And not a patient.”

“Two hearts,” a young female doctor said incredulously. “There’s no way he’s healthy.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “You had to tell them, didn’t you?” she asked the Doctor. “‘I have two hearts. Use your stethoscopes, I dare you’. Now we’re stuck here.”

The Doctor shrugged and pointed at the man whose name tag read ‘Dr Gregory House’. “We’re right where we need to be. He’s the alien we’re after. Can’t believe no one’s ever realised.”

 

 

Title: Reforged  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 246: Genesis. Set during the 2005 Children in Need Special.

Fire burns through his veins and he opens his mouth as if to scream.

He’s being rewritten. His whole body is changing, and his mind with it. Usually in this moment all he can think about is the pain. This time, though, he thinks about _her_.

The first time he looks at her with new eyes, he immediately loves her more than ever. That’s how he knows he’s been reforged to her specifications, without her even knowing it.

Apparently she likes him skinnier. And with big hair. And he’ll just bet he’s a pretty boy now.

Strangely, he doesn’t mind.

 

 

Title: Pushing Each Other Away  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Rose/Mickey, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 247: Frustration. Set during the beginning of Season 2.

First she meets Sarah Jane and the Doctor implies that Rose is just yet another of the many who’ve travelled with him. Then he invites Mickey on board the TARDIS. By the time he runs off to be with another woman, Rose has got the message.

He's pushing her away.

Two can play at that.

Rose knows that Mickey's well aware that when she takes his hand and draws him towards her bedroom, it's not really about him. She's frustrated, and he's _there_.

Still, she's sees the permission to use him in Mickey's eyes. He's just a man, after all.

 

 

Title: Her Own Good  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 251: Shuttle. AU set sometime after Season 2.

The Doctor slams the door in her face milliseconds before Rose throws herself back towards him. The lock engages.

It’s the third time he’s sent her away for her ‘own good’. It’s the first she’s ever had to see his face straight afterwards. The thick glass separating them doesn’t disguise his devastation. She’s not sure whether to feel better that it hurts him as much as her.

As the escape shuttle detaches from the ship, Rose silently swears that she won’t even slap him for pushing her away, as long as he survives.

He’s all she has in this universe.

 

 

Title: Livestock  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 258: Colony. Set during Season 2. Slight nod to Angel the Series.

It would have been really nice, Rose thought, if the Doctor spent two seconds figuring out when and where they’d landed before they stepped outside. She loved adventure, sure, but there were clearly a few places in the universe onto which no human being should ever set foot.

“Human swine,” the bug-eyed alien said. It spat at Rose (or at least she thought it did; she didn’t exactly know where its mouth was located, so it was hard to tell).

Rose really hoped the Doctor broke her out of The Colony soon. She really didn’t fancy life as a slave.

 

 

Title: The Boy Who Never Grows Any Older  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 260: Pan. Set sometime during Season 2.

The Doctor reads to her. Rose can’t help but identify with Wendy, because there’s just no question that the Doctor is like Peter Pan. The boy who lives apart from the real world and never grows any older, but who becomes enthralled by a perfectly ordinary human girl and her family. The boy who doesn’t want that human girl to ever leave him, but still refuses to act to prevent her from going. That’s the Doctor all over.

The real divergence between Rose and Wendy is that Wendy makes the decision to leave. Rose can’t see herself ever doing that.

 

 

Title: Empty Pockets  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 263: Pocket. Set during Season 2.

“All right,” Rose said. “That’s it. Empty out your pockets.”

“What?” the Doctor asked incredulously. “What did I do?”

“You can’t even find the sonic screwdriver anymore, there’s so much junk in there.”

“They’re dimensionally transcendent,” the Doctor pointed out.

“Just means there’s more space for rubbish,” Rose said stubbornly.

A stuffed pig, a wind-up toy soldier, sixty-two forms of non-Earth-based currency, a live mouse, six chocolate biscuits, tin foil shaped like a swan, and an opaque crystal ball later, the Doctor paused.

“Maybe I _should_ clean them out this once.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Once? Yeah right. Try monthly.”

 

 

Title: Digging Up a Grave  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose, Sam & Dean Winchester (sort of)  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 265: Dig. Set during Season 2. Vague crossover with Supernatural (you don’t really need to be familiar with that, though).

“Why’re those guys diggin' up a grave?” Rose asked, a disgusted look crossing her face. “Or don’t I wanna know?”

The Doctor smiled. “There’s a particular species, the Boros, that can pass themselves off as spectres after their host bodies die, because their psychic essence is still linked to the remains. Those boys over there are destroying the body before that Boros can do any more harm.”

“Those guys know about aliens?” Rose asked sceptically.

“They think it’s _ghosts_ ,” the Doctor laughed. “Still, looks like this problem’s taken care of. TARDIS?”

Rose took his hand and let herself be led.

 

 

Title: There’s No ‘Just’ About Jackie Tyler  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 273: Laundry. Set just prior to ‘Army of Ghosts’.

The Doctor glared at Rose. “We have a whole wardrobe room full of clothes. What’s wrong with them?”

Rose picked some stray lint off her jumper, attempting to look innocent. “They’re not my style.”

“What, none of them? There are outfits suited to the whole of time and space in there, and not one is good enough for Rose Tyler?”

“Doctor,” Rose admonished. “I just wanna do some laundry.”

No, she wanted them to go to Jackie Tyler’s flat to do laundry. There was no ‘just’ about that.

“Fine,” he sighed.

When had she made him into a pushover, anyway?

 

 

Title: Into the Ring  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 274: Mat. Set sometime during Season 2.

The Doctor looked to Rose for help. Rose just shrugged and motioned for the Doctor to step forward. Into the ring. With a man (and the Doctor thought that was stretching the definition of the word) who was at least seven times his body weight, and all of it apparently pure muscle.

Yeah, the Doctor thought, just pin him to the mat for the count of three. No problem.

He wondered whether he could stupefy the man with his wit for long enough to pin him. Otherwise, he’d be run through all his regenerations before they got off this planet.

 

 

Title: A Woman’s Prerogative  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 281: Entourage. Set after ‘Girl in the Fireplace’.

The Doctor can’t figure Rose out. One minute she’s inviting people aboard the TARDIS right and left. The next she’s glaring at him for letting Mickey join them (even though _she_ suggested it not long ago), and she’s wearing that sad look that stabs him in the hearts because he wants Reinette to come along with them.

The Doctor likes to surround himself with people. He always has. But he hasn’t always wanted one person with him more than others.

If Rose wants it to be just the two of them now, for once he might be okay with that.

 

 

Title: The Tube  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose, Jackie  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 285: Public Transport. Set during Season 2.

“But we have the TARDIS,” the Doctor whined.

Rose grinned. “Honestly, Doctor, it’s just the Tube.”

The Doctor shook his head vehemently. “We’re going out to dinner with your _mother_ , who’s wearing that scary look that means she’s either planning to slap me or planning to make us get married. It’s not just the Tube. It’s the long, long ride to _hell_. Dunno about you, but I don’t want to draw the punishment out any.”

“You just wanna use the TARDIS so’s you can ‘accidently’ steer us off course and miss dinner.”

Well. Damn her for knowing him so well.

 

 

Title: Like a Bad Copy  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 289: Substitute. Set during the 2005 Children in Need Special (just prior to ‘The Christmas Invasion’).

It was difficult to believe, even after he’d verbally proven that he knew things only the Doctor could possibly be aware of, that this odd man bounding about wrecking everything could possibly be the Doctor. _Her_ Doctor had disappeared, and now some man who didn’t seem anything like him stood in his place, like a bad copy.

However much damage it did the TARDIS to get them there, Rose was glad they were headed back to the Powell Estates. With the one constant in her recent life just having up and left her, she really just wanted to go home.

 

 

Title: The Limitations of Psychic Paper  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 292: Badge.

“But it’s fine!” the Doctor said. “See? We have badges. Well, _a_ badge. It’s a more efficient use of resources to have just the one between us. It’s the new trend, honestly. It’ll catch on in no time.”

What looked to be the city’s entire police force just stared at him like he was... well, an alien. Hands twitched towards holstered guns.

“I think you’re makin’ it worse,” Rose whispered.

Later, locked up across from each other in separate men’s and women’s holding cells, the Doctor wondered why his psychic paper apparently worked on everyone _other than_ New York’s finest.

 

 

Title: Backing Down From a Dare  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 298: Fun. Set during Season 2.

“Oh, come on then. You said ‘dare’. You can’t back down now.”

The Doctor can’t believe he’s playing an adolescent game with Rose. Well, yes he can. She makes him feel even younger than even _she_ is. So though it _should_ be surprising, it’s not.

“There is no way I’m piloting us to Tudor England just so I can moon Henry VIII. I like this head.”

It could only be worse if they’d chosen spin-the-bottle.

Well, no, with only the two of them that might’ve been _much_ better. Maybe he could make her forget the dare by suggesting that instead.

 

 

Title: Too Stupid to Fall  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 299: Tremor. Set during ‘The Impossible Planet’.

One earthquake, barely even a tremor compared to the devastating ground-shocks of the Grandite Cluster, signals his life’s end. It just takes him a while to realise it’s over.

He observes the gaping crevasse where his TARDIS should be with numb shock. Losing the TARDIS is like losing Gallifrey all over again. No, worse, it’s like losing one of his hearts. Or both, even.

No matter how Rose tries to make light, he won’t recover from this. It’s not just his home that’s gone. It’s himself. He’s dead in every way that matters. His body’s just too stupid to fall.

 

Title: Taking Advantage of the Paradox   
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: The Master, Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 312: Play. Set during an AU ‘The Sound of Drums’/‘The Last of the Time Lords’.

Even if the TARDIS hadn’t been restricted to 21st century Earth, the Master would have put in a visit anyway. He loves playing with the Doctor’s disgusting little humans just to see how it _hurts_ him.

He shreds the TARDIS and it screams for some girl. The Master can sense, somehow, that the Doctor would scream in a similar way.

He’s building a paradox machine. No sense wasting it.

When the Doctor sees that the Master’s snatched Rose Tyler out of time and space and has been toying with her for _months_ , something in him breaks. The Master loves it.

 

Title: A Not Inconsequential Mistake  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten, Rose, Mickey  
Warning: Death  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 319: Witness. Set during ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’. Written after a discussion with wherein I realised that apparently I’d never written this scenario, despite thinking I already had. I’m still sure I actually do have it written somewhere, to be honest.

He’d expected mere seconds to pass on this side of the fireplace with that loose connection. That had been a mistake. It should have been inconsequential, even so, but he’s never been that lucky.

He can’t breathe. He wishes the respiratory bypass would just _stop_.

He’s the Lord of all of time and space, yet he has no power here. He can’t use the TARDIS. He can’t take back his delay. There’s no way to erase Rose and Mickey’s dismantled corpses and the torture the clockwork droids must have put them through.

She’s _dead_.

Ever the coward, he turns away.

 

Title: Closing Timelines  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 328: Ignorance Is Bliss

Each time he successfully gets her through another day, he can literally _see_ thwarted potential timelines fading. He hates this particular skill.

He knows all 13,849 different ways that he could get her killed, and while it’s better than the nearly 54,000 he’d seen upon first meeting her, he still feels a looming dread.

She’s different to anyone he’s met, but she’s still _human_. In the end, even if they live through tripping over stray rocks and electrocutions by toaster and traffic collisions, human timelines eventually narrow down to one.

The Doctor’s curse is that he can see it coming.

 

Title: Picturing the Future  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 337: Frieze. Set late in Season 2.

“Hang on,” Rose said. “Is it just me, or do those pictures look kinda like us?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve been immortalised in art,” the Doctor shrugged.

“It’s like a comic of our life,” Rose remarked, squinting at the pictures lining the wall top. “There’s Kyoto! And the black hole! But... what’s that one about?”

The Doctor stepped into Rose’s line of vision. “You don’t want to know the future. Takes the fun out of it.”

The Doctor wished _he’d_ been lucky enough to miss seeing the last picture of him standing alone and dejected inside the TARDIS.


	4. Ten II and Rose Gen and Romance Drabbles

Title: Whispered Words of Love  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II, Ten  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 27: Lazy Mod Week, which allowed me to choose whichever previous challenge I liked. I chose Challenge 22: Whisper. Set during ‘Journey’s End’.

Another woman might be put out that not only does the other Doctor refuse to say the words, but this Doctor who claims he wants to spend the rest of his life with her won’t say them loudly enough for everyone else to hear.

Rose understands, though. There’s too many people around, not least of which the Time Lord Doctor, who apparently feels the same but can’t have her. This half-human man has finally learned enough emotional awareness of others to not rub it in.

‘I love you’, Rose quickly decides, sounds best as a whisper in her ear, anyway.

 

 

Title: A More Than Equal Reaction  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten II/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 33: Newton’s Third Law of Motion. Set post-‘Journey’s End’ in Pete’s World.

He pushed her, and she gave back more than he’d imagined she was capable of. He got frustrated and spoke unnecessarily harshly to her, and then found himself with ringing ears from her angry shouting. He caught her lower lip gently between his teeth, and not two minutes later she was straddling him, his tangled shirt tying his hands above his head. He dazedly wondered how they got there.

When it came to people, the Doctor discovered that Newton’s third law was rubbish. Rose’s reactions to him had always been much more than just equal. He loved that about her.

 

 

Title: In Safe Hands  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten II/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 52: Heart. Set post-‘Journey’s End’ in Pete’s World.

Having one heart should feel like he’s not whole. There’s a cavity in his chest where he remembers a beating organ. His body is less efficient. He should feel like that second heart has been torn from him and left him still bleeding.

He doesn’t.

His second heart hasn’t been his own since he met Rose. When she was lost, she took it with her. He dealt with that pain years ago. This, now, is nothing new.

Now Rose is right beside him again. So he knows his second heart is safe and sound, even if he can’t feel it.

 

 

Title: Cool Champagne on Warm Skin  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 62: Vintage. Set post-‘Journey’s End’ in Pete’s World

She licks the champagne up from where it pools on the Doctor’s chest. She misses a bit, which runs down to finally settle in his navel. She follows it, grinning. The champagne is cool against her lips and the bubbles tickle her tongue, but beneath that she can still feel the heat and the texture of his skin.

“Nope,” she said. “Exactly the same.”

“Rose,” the Doctor groans. “That was the best vintage in the whole TARDIS. How can you not taste the difference between that cheap stuff you picked and this?”

Rose smiles. “They both just taste like you.”

 

 

Title: Taking Full Advantage  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 115: Knots. Set in Pete’s World post-‘Journey’s End’. Includes mild bondage.

The Doctor blinked awake in confusion. He went to sit up, but couldn’t.

“What?”

His wrists were tied to the bedposts. How had that happened?

The Doctor’s gaze shifted to where Rose was standing at the foot of the bed, noting that his ankles were also tied down.

“You wouldn’t admit you needed to sleep more now. I had to do somethin',” Rose explained.

“Sleeping pills. You knocked me out,” the Doctor realised. “And... decided to tie me up?”

Rose shrugged, moving around to his side. “I finally got you into a bed. I wasn’t about to waste that opportunity.”

 

 

Title: Intergalactic Political Correctness  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 116: Fairy Tale. Set post-‘Journey’s End’.

“Klarafoxes don’t look like that,” the Doctor says.

Rose looks up from her laptop to glare at him. “Hey! What’d I tell you about criticisin' my stories?”

“But, really–”

“Doctor,” she interjects with exasperation. “They’re fairy tales for very small children. I’m not worried about intergalactic political correctness.”

“You could cause an incident if they got their hands on this, though,” the Doctor says, frowning.

“I left Torchwood for a reason. It’s not my job to care about that anymore. I just wanna write stories.”

He silently pouts.

Rose sighs. “All right, then. What do they really look like?”

 

 

Title: A Not-Quite Holiday  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten II/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 126: Vacation. Set in Pete’s World, post-‘Journey’s End’.

“Ho-li-day,” the Doctor said slowly, layering contempt over each syllable.

“You don’t have to make it sound like cursin',” Rose said, exasperated.

“I don’t do holidays.”

“Please,” she scoffed. “Your life was one big vacation from reality.”

“Exactly!” the Doctor said. “That’s what it _was_ like!”

“And taking a holiday is like admitting that it's not anymore,” Rose finished, suddenly understanding.

“Yes.”

“So what happens if we go away, but we don’t call it a holiday?”

“Then it’s just travelling, like always,” the Doctor answered.

Rose rolled her eyes at him. “You’re ridiculous. Lucky I love you.”

The Doctor grinned.

 

 

Title: Rivulets Tracing Curves  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten II/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 145: Water.

The water pours down her body, rivulets tracing curves like an artist’s pencil outlining them for emphasis. He tracks the progress of those lines, noticing how the damp smooths away the tiny flaws in her skin.

The Doctor’s firmly of the belief that Rose Tyler is at her most perfect when she’s showering. Perhaps it’s the way the steam brings just the slightest involuntary flush to her cheeks. Maybe it’s just the fact that she’s unabashedly naked.

Whatever it is, he feels uniquely privileged to be able to observe it. He steps into the shower, determined to take full advantage.

 

 

Title: Too Much Sugar  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 163: Treacle. Set post-'Journey's End'.

Since regeneration, the Doctor's had a serious sweet tooth. Rose isn't entirely sure just how that will work out now that he doesn't have a Time Lord metabolism anymore, but the Doctor insists he hasn't changed _that_ much.

He makes her buy syrup the next time she goes shopping. He squeezes it over her in interesting patterns.

She arches up towards his tongue when he laps the treacle from her belly button.

Twenty minutes later, though, he's moaning (not in a good way) and looking fairly green.

Apparently there _is_ such a thing as 'too much sugar' for him now.

 

 

Title: Everything and Nothing Changes  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 169: Morning. Set post-‘Journey’s End’.

She thinks upon waking that this might be the most awkward morning-after that she’s been through. Most of the guys she’s been with have been so casual about it all that it was never a big deal. But with him, this has been building for _years_. Everything’s changed in one night.

She rolls over and encounters various machinery parts scattered across the covers. He’s sitting up, tongue between his teeth, reassembling something that might once have been her phone.

“D’you think Torchwood will notice if I have a rectifying linear inductor?” he asks her thoughtfully.

Maybe nothing’s changed at all.

 

 

Title: Becoming a Son-in-Law  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Ten II/Rose, Jackie  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 176: Bond. Set in Pete’s World, post-‘Journey’s End’.

As of five minutes ago, the Doctor’s married. That isn’t entirely different for him. He’s been married on dozens of different planets, sometimes even to the very woman he married this time. It’s more than just a way to appease the locals or some such this go around, but it’s still nothing that hasn’t happened before.

Something that’s completely different, though, is that this time he hasn’t just married someone. He’s become a son-in-law.

He’s bound himself to Jackie Tyler just as much as to Rose. The Doctor wonders if anyone will notice if he goes off to be sick.

 

 

Title: It's Tradition  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II, Jackie  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 178: Tradition. Set in Pete's World post-'Journey's End'.

Jackie asks whether they're intending to go back to Norway for their 'anniversary'. Rose looks at her like she's grown sixteen heads (because anything less than that would be a bit commonplace in Rose's life).

"I spent the worst day of my life there. Why would I wanna go back?"

"It's tradition. You go back to the place where you met."

Rose looks sidelong at the Doctor, grinning slyly.

"I don't want to know, do I?" Jackie asks, exasperated.

Their new universe has a Henrik's, which wasn't blown up. They sonic their way in at night and, laughing manically, _run_.

 

Title: The Rope in Your Tug-of-War  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten/Rose, Ten II/Rose, possible implied Ten/Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 201: Train. Goes AU during ‘Journey’s End’. Rose and the half-human Doctor stay in the TARDIS (as they should).

“No, seriously, it’s my night. You had her last night, remember?”

“It’s Saturday! We alternate Saturdays, and this one is mine!”

“You can’t have her two nights in a row.”

Rose buries her face in her hands tiredly as the two Doctors fight over her. She’d known this would be a train-wreck as soon as the word ‘schedule’ was used.

“You know what?” she said, “I’m going to bed. Either both of you come with me, or neither of you do. I’m sick of being the rope in your tug-of-war.”

The two Doctors eye each other speculatively as she leaves.

 

 

Title: The Waffle Iron  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 203: Waddle / Waffle / Wattle.

Something’s burning. Again.

Rose flys out from the bedroom, following the smell of smoke. The Doctor is standing just barely out of the reach of the flames, coughing.

Electrical fire, she thinks. She’s gotten very good at identifying different types. She grabs for the potting mix she keeps under the sink for just such occasions. Catching sight of it, the Doctor seems to come back to his senses and helps her put the fire out.

“What was it this time?” she asks once it’s safe.

“The waffle iron,” he admits.

Her forehead creases. “We have a waffle iron?”

“Not anymore.”

 

 

Title: The Promise of Later  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 233: Aquatic. Set in Pete’s World, post-‘Journey’s End’.

“Why won’t you come in?” Rose asked. “The water’s warm.”

“I’m fine right here, thanks,” the Doctor said.

She’d promised the sight of her in a bikini to get him to the beach. He hadn’t considered that he’d have to get mostly-naked as well. He still had enough trouble with just _her_ seeing him in less than his full suit-and-tie get-up, thanks.

“What if I promised you a reward?” Rose asked with a teasing smile.

“What kind of reward?”

“The kind you get _later_.”

The Doctor sighed and started stripping. He was such a pushover when it came to her.

 

 

Title: Bringing Him Along  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 239: Mirror. Set in Pete’s World, post-‘Journey’s End’.

“Why are there mirrors?” the Doctor asks loudly. Rose ducks her head, embarrassed. Only _he_ would go about questioning things in a sex shop. She should have known better than to bring him along. “What have mirrors got to do with sex?”

“Shh,” Rose whispers. “Some people like watchin’ themselves.”

The Doctor maintains his confused look for a moment, and then sort of gapes as he _gets_ it.

“Ohhh...” the Doctor breathes. He looks back at the mirror speculatively. “Could we do that?”

Rose laughs. “I think you and your hair spend enough time in front of the mirror.”

“Oi!”

 

 

Title: Just Like Old Times, Only Better  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 242: Pi / Pie. Set in Pete’s World, post-‘Journey’s End’.

He’s been kidnapped. _Again_. It’s a good thing she’s got so much experience getting things done without him, now. She never thought she’d be so glad for those years they’d spent apart.

When she does figure out how to give the aliens what they want, and organises for a Torchwood team to rescue the Doctor, she greets him with a slice of pie.

“I thought it could be just like old times, but I couldn’t find any cake with edible ball bearings,” she admits.

“This is better.”

She tastes the pie when he kisses her. He’s right. This _is_ better.

 

Title: Seven Melted Containers and a Broken Toaster  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 254: Batter. Set in Pete’s World, post-‘Journey’s End’.

“What,” Rose began, already sounding horrified, “is _that_?”

“Pancakes,” the Doctor replied cheerfully.

“No,” Rose said. “I know pancakes. _That_ is a mess.”

The Doctor looked around at the flour and batter and egg shells he’d scattered across the kitchen and gave Rose an innocent look.

“When it _is_ pancakes, though, you won’t be angry anymore, right? _Right_? Pancakes fix everything.”

Rose gave him a no-nonsense look. “You wish. Make pancakes for us, _and_ clean it up, _and_ give me a foot rub, and maybe then we’ll pretend that I didn’t see the seven melted containers and the broken toaster.”

 

 

Title: Staggering a Few Steps  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II, Rose/Ten implied  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 180: Impression. Set during ‘Journey’s End’.

He got the impression, from the way she staggered a few steps after the dematerialising TARDIS, that even though she'd kissed _him_ , it was the other Doctor with whom Rose really wanted to stay. Perhaps she'd only kissed him to make the other man jealous enough to admit his feelings. Whatever she'd intended, it hadn't been for the other him to disappear without saying goodbye while they'd been locked together at the lips.

He hoped that she only felt that way because she still wasn't certain he was _him_. He'd convinced her of that once. He could do it again.

 

 

Title: Set to Random  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten II, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 24: Holiday. Set post-‘Journey’s End’ in Pete’s World.

He’s still the Doctor, even though he’s half-human now. He’s never been able to sit still for two seconds when he could be galloping across time and space, particularly in his current incarnation.

Rose suggests a holiday, but it’s limited to Earth destinations. It’s an extension of his cage, but the bars clearly remain.

That is, of course, until she puts a map in front of him and tells him to close his eyes and point.

“Like settin’ it for ‘random’ on the TARDIS,” she says.

If he didn’t already love her madly, he would have fallen for her then.

 

 

Title: Wanting Her to Stay  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten II, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 137: Grateful.

Rose leaves him alone to get settled. The Doctor can’t figure out whether to be annoyed that she’s just _left_ him, or grateful that she’s given him time to get his head together.

He’s lost the TARDIS. He’s lost the ability to regenerate and never age. He’s been dropped off in a universe he barely knows. He’s having a bit of difficulty adjusting, and he imagines Rose knows that. She’s just being helpful.

Still, when she comes back for him and they sit up talking, his emotions aren’t ambiguous at all. He wants her to never leave again.

 

 

Title: Seven Melted Containers and a Broken Toaster  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 254: Batter. Set in Pete’s World, post-‘Journey’s End’.

“What,” Rose began, already sounding horrified, “is _that_?”

“Pancakes,” the Doctor replied cheerfully.

“No,” Rose said. “I know pancakes. _That_ is a mess.”

The Doctor looked around at the flour and batter and egg shells he’d scattered across the kitchen and gave Rose an innocent look.

“When it _is_ pancakes, though, you won’t be angry anymore, right? _Right_? Pancakes fix everything.”

Rose gave him a no-nonsense look. “You wish. Make pancakes for us, _and_ clean it up, _and_ give me a foot rub, and maybe then we’ll pretend that I didn’t see the seven melted containers and the broken toaster.”

 

 

Title: Like a Teacher  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten II/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 259: Detention. Set in Pete’s World post-‘Journey’s End’.

“You look like a teacher, wearin’ those glasses.”

That comment had started it.

The Doctor had been intrigued that Rose said it with slightly glazed-over eyes. He would have thought that anything to do with teachers and school would have been a turn-off, for her at least. She’d hated school when she’d actually been there.

Now, however, she seemed to be very much enjoying being bent over a long desk with her pants around her ankles.

“I hope you don’t always offer to do this to avoid detentions,” the Doctor said sternly.

“Only with you, Doctor Smith.”

The Doctor grinned.

 

 

Title: Devil’s Advocate  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 270: Polemic. Set post-‘Journey’s End’.

It’s the only routine in this new life on the slow path that he actually looks forward to. Working, eating, sleeping; he barely tolerates those. This, though, he wouldn’t give up for anything.

Without fail, Rose makes some daily grand statement that she _knows_ he vehemently disagrees with, and then plays devil’s advocate until they end up nearly shouting at each other. It’s not that they like arguing, so much. Rose just likes proving that she can stand up to him and hold her ground.

They also both quite enjoy the angry snogging used to shut the other person up.

 

 

Title: Swinging From Chandeliers  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 272: Throwback.

“Doctor,” Rose began calmly, “would you like to tell me why your son keeps swingin’ from my parents’ chandelier like a monkey?”

“ _My_ son? Why is he just mine when he’s acting out?”

“Who’s the super-unique hybrid species here? Everythin’ weird he does is definitely on you.”

The Doctor pouted. “If I had to guess, I’d say it’s because the last time Gallifreyans reproduced the way we did, we were a lot more... primitive. It’s probably just one odd throwback.”

“So you’re sayin’ that _you’re_ descended from stupid apes?” Rose grinned. “You’re so never gonna hear the end of this.”

 

 

Title: Going Out For Cigarettes  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten II/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 277: Deception. Set in Pete’s Word post-‘Journey’s End’.

He’d always thought the ‘going out for cigarettes and never returning’ situation was a myth. He didn’t think that sort of thing could ever happen. Why would someone do that? Why wouldn’t they just _tell_ people that they were leaving?

Honesty had never been his strong suit.

He really wished he could tell Rose that he just needed some time away, doing his own thing. But how could he really tell her that when he knew he couldn’t be equally honest in answering her inevitable question about when he’ll be back.

He doesn’t know whether he’ll be back at all.

 

 

Title: Identifying and Recording the Connection  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Ten II/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 286: Scarlet. Set post-'Journey's End' in Pete’s World.

Right now Rose Tyler’s face is flushed. The Doctor, being incredibly intelligent, has detected a trend attached to this strange little biological alteration of hers. She seems to run noticeably hotter whenever he wears his specs. What he can’t quite see, glasses or no, is how those things could possibly be connected.

One night she asks him to leave the specs (and his tie, interestingly) on after he’s flicked the bedroom light off.

Her moans are louder than he’s ever heard. Ah, he thinks. He’s identified the connection after all. He’ll have to remember to record it. Later. _Much_ later.

 

 

Title: Like a Human, But Better  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten II/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 291: Ordinary. Set in Pete’s World, post-‘Journey’s End’.

The Doctor knows that Rose worries sometimes (just _sometimes_ ) that she’s not what he wants, or not good enough for him, or something equally ridiculous. Even after saving the world multiple times and now working for Torchwood, the way a lot of what he says goes over her head bothers her.

She thinks she’s too ordinary for him. Too human. She’s wrong. She’s special in just the right way.

He doesn’t want her to be like a Time Lady. He mourns them, but he’d still never liked his species much.

What he wants is Rose Tyler, exactly as she is.

 

 

Title: The Limits of His Technical Abilities  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Ten II   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 305: Steam. Set in Pete’s World, post-‘Journey’s End’.

“Woah...” Rose breathed, stopping short in the doorway. Dustballs floated across her shoes like tumbleweeds. Steam filled the air.

The Doctor’s desperate look was buried under a layer of dirt. “Rose,” he said piteously.

“What did you _do_?” Rose asked.

The Doctor mumbled something.

Rose crossed her arms pointedly, waiting.

“I blew up the vacuum cleaner,” he repeated.

Rose’s laughter escaped before she could stifle it.

“You can save the world with a spatula and some cling-wrap, but you can’t even Hoover the place?”

The Doctor looked imploringly at her. Rose grinned.

“C’mon genius, I’ll show you how it’s done.”

 

Title: A Mother Tiger  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Jackie, Rose/Ten II   
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 347: Hospital. Set post-‘Journey’s End’.

Someone across the hospital ward complained loudly, only to lapse into silence when the full strength of Jackie Tyler’s glare was directed at him. Jackie leaned back into her seat again, satisfied for now. She comfortingly squeezed the hand she held onto even though she knew Rose couldn’t feel it.

When the Doctor burst in, though, she didn’t try to quiet his frantic questions. She even let him slide in and take Rose’s hand for himself.

She’d never stop mothering Rose, but she was glad there was finally someone who cared for her daughter just as much as she did.

 

Title: A Gift For All  
Rating: PG-13  
Warning: Mild bondage  
Character/s: Ten II/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 348: Party. Set post-‘Journey’s End’.

The Doctor wakes to find Rose inserting a gag into his mouth. He reflexively reaches to pull it free, but his arms are also restrained.

“Happy birthday,” Rose says.

“It’s not my birthday. Well, not that I know of. Do I _have_ a birthday?” That’s what the Doctor _tries_ to say. Rose, apparently, understands the gist of the garbled mumble that slips past the obstruction.

“Happy birthday to _me_ ,” she amends.

She’s jokingly threatened to gag him since they first met. He still never expected _this_.

She takes full advantage, and he thinks this might be his birthday after all.

 

Title: Forms in Triplicate  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten II, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 313: Bureaucracy. Set post-‘Journey’s End’.

The Doctor holds the envelope gingerly between his index finger and thumb, looking at it as if it’s poisonous, or about to explode, or in some other way far more dangerous than the mad things that he’s always faced on a day-to-day basis.

“Triplicate?” he asks, spitting it like it’s a dirty word.

“It’s part of the requirements,” the Manager insists.

The Doctor turns to Rose and says in an exaggerated whisper, “I don’t know about this whole ‘Torchwood’ thing.”

Rose grins and pats him on the shoulder. “We’ll get you an assistant to do the paperwork,” she assures him.

 

 

Title: The Symptom  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Ten II, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 317: Cough. Set post-‘Journey’s End’.

He calls himself ‘the Doctor’, yet somehow he’s completely missed this. The first he knows of it is an innocuous little cough. He brings Rose some chicken soup (not the one Jackie makes; he’s not ready for her to die just yet, thanks) and they laugh about it.

He doesn’t know that this is just the symptom she can’t hide anymore.

She smiles as if nothing’s wrong, and of course he believes her. It’s only when she receives the final diagnosis that she decides it’s time to worry him.

As usual, when it matters, he’s too late to do anything.

 

Title: Never Going to Settle  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 320: Comity. Set post-‘Journey’s End’.

They dance around each other, too polite and oddly distant as if they hadn’t clutched desperately at each other on that beach, hanging onto the storm’s calm as their world as they knew it ended.

Rose has waited far too long to get back to him to settle for that, though.

He babbles nonsense as she grabs him by the jacket and pushes him backward into the wall. The press of her lips to his is probably the first thing that's ever effectively shut him up.

“Well,” he mumbles as she pulls away. “That was...”

“Perfect,” Rose claims. “Absolutely perfect.”

 

 

Title: In the Library  
Rating: R  
Warning: Sex  
Character/s: Rose/Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 321: New Things. Set after ‘Journey’s End’.

“Rose,” the Doctor hissed as she straddled him in his chair, “this is a _library_.”

“Then _shhh_.”

She made sure his lips were otherwise occupied as she unzipped his pants, muffling a surprised yelp at her firm touch.

He had even more difficulty than usual keeping quiet when she lowered herself. His eyes clenched shut and they panted loudly into each other’s mouths. Rose didn’t much care if they were overheard, actually.

The next time he commented that nothing interesting or new ever happened in this universe, Rose simply stated, “Library.” The Doctor blushed and promptly shut up.

Rose grinned.

 

 

Title: Raining Down  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Ten II  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 323: Judgment. Set post-‘Journey’s End’.

Even though she’d never wanted to return, she’d still been proud of how self-sufficient and integral to the Torchwood in this universe she’d become. Everyone had looked to her. _Her_ , not just the Doctor.

When the Doctor had looked as if he didn’t even recognise her, though, she really wished that she wasn’t still responsible for making all the big calls now that she was back.

The remains of the alien ship rained down in the distance. It had been necessary. Rose would make that decision again.

But the judgment in his eyes made her regret it all the same.


	5. Other Doctor and Rose Drabbles

Title: Confessions in High Gallifreyan  
Rating: PG  
Character/s: Eleven/Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 339: Fashion. Set both during Rose’s travels between universes and sometime after Series 6.

Rose’s hair, of a shorter fashion than when he’d last seen her (though not when she’d last seen him), fanned across the pillow like an invitation. The Doctor looped his fingers through its silkiness, tracing High Gallifreyan symbols that disappeared when she shifted to look at him.

It always surprised him that Time Lords, who considered themselves above it, had words equivalent to ‘love’. It was less surprising that they contemplated ‘forever’.

The Doctor was thoroughly ashamed that he could only promise either thing to her in a language she didn’t understand and knowing he’d have to leave her again.

 

Title: Last Thoughts  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Thirteen, Rose  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 124: Remember.

When he reaches the end of his long life, there’s so much to recall. He might be the only Time Lord ever who can legitimately claim that he lived a full life. He saw the universe. He witnessed warfare, death, and pain. He also fell in love, and had his hearts broken. He’s seen the whole spectrum of existence, and it’s both wonderful and terrible.

There are so many people and things to remember in those moments just before his final incarnation fades into nothingness. Yet, in the end, it’s blonde hair and a mischievous smile that stay with him.

 

 

Title: Wrong Place, Wrong Time  
Author: Queen of the Castle  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, John Smith  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 50: Reunion. AU (or is it?) set during ‘Human Nature’.

“Doctor!” Rose calls out. She’s finally found him. The right him, that is. She’s run into universes where he’s died, or even where he’s been in a different body. But here he is, just as she remembers him, although oddly he’s changed outfits to match the period for once.

But obviously she’s not as _he_ remembers. His eyes meet hers and there’s no recognition.

“Excuse me?”

“Doctor?” she asks again, her voice wavering.

“I’m sorry, Miss. I’m a teacher, not a doctor. My name is John Smith.”

Rose forces herself not to cry.

This obviously isn’t her universe after all.

 

 

Title: On His Own Merit  
Rating: G  
Character/s: Rose, Alt!Nine  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 183: Trade. Set in Pete's World post-'Doomsday'.

The Doctor told her there were no Time Lords in other universes. He was right.

He never said there weren't other _Doctors_ , though.

She thinks initially that he's just a doppelganger, but even his attitude mirrors how the Doctor acted when he was all dark eyes and leather. She feels drawn to him, even though he's human and clearly not the same man.

She knows he's not _him_. But that doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t still be able to discover whether she likes him on his own merit, does it?

Then the Dimension Cannon starts working. She never finds out.

 

Title: Hero Amongst Thieves  
Rating: PG-13  
Character/s: Rose/Peter Carlisle, implied Rose/Doctor  
Author’s Notes: Written for Challenge 334: Crook. Crossover with ‘Blackpool’ set in Pete’s World post-‘Doomsday’.

He’s nothing like the Doctor. She’s seen enough to know that he’s not always a good man. While the Doctor might have been forced to do some truly horrendous things, Rose has never for a second doubted that his hearts break each and every time. Sometimes Peter barely blinks.

But he gazes at her just as the Doctor did when he thought she wasn’t looking. Even if they weren’t physically identical, Rose would see the similarities.

She tries to do the right thing – to push him away – but when Peter touches her like the Doctor never did, right and wrong melt away.


End file.
